Thursday, 20 October 2011

Behold some of the superb shop windows at Selfridges, created by the important, beautifully executed and ever so popular Museum of Everything.

The serious stuff, however, is to be found several floors up in the Old Selfridges Hotel, now a sprawling concrete space that makes the Peckham carpark gallery look slick. Here the museum is exhibiting the haunting work of Judith Scott, whose Cocoon pieces use giant coloured threads to wrap up bunches of commandeered objects until they intimate bodily shapes, both human and alien. These forms hang from the industrial ceilings, casting geometric shadows on the peeling walls.

Dark and disconcerting, Scott's sculptures surrounded the drunk and dancing crowds at the opening party during Frieze week. The night was an epic melange of temporary architecture and overlapping musics that was frankly one of the most brilliantly cacophonic concoctions for revelry that we've ever seen.

Scott's life and work was recently represented on The Culture Show (19.50 onwards) as well as in the documentary Outsider.

Parrot Cay is a titchy Caribbean island with a high celebrity head count. Poking around their houses on a recent work visit, some bookshelves provided a brief insight into the areas that interest three big stars -

Donna Karan:

Quoted in interview as saying 'it's all about the body'. Well, quite.

Bruce Willis:

Herodotus hey? Mixed with social satire and pop culture. We like.

Keith Richards:

Popular history, blues memoirs, controversial autobiography, grandfathers' etiquette, literary classics and pirate-related tales. Living up to legend then matey?

Residents say Keith just reads. And drinks. And plays dominoes. The sweet side of island living.